Human rights

CHRI – The prosecution of 14 women who signed a statement demanding the resignation of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will begin on October 21, 2019, at Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court. They have been charged with “propaganda against the state” and “assembly and collusion against national security,” Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, an attorney representing three of the defendants, told the Center …

Radiofarda – In a letter to the Islamic Republic head of the judiciary, political prisoner Farhad Maysami, has protested against the appointment of a new warden for Tehran’s notorious prison, Evin. Explicitly accusing the newly appointed warden of “violating prisoners’ rights” in an “unprecedented manner,” Maysami has called upon Ebrahim Raeesi (Raeisi) to dismiss Gholamreza Ziyaee. The new warden Ziyaee …

HRANA – On October 16, 2019, Atefeh Rangriz, a political prisoner of Qarchak Prison, went on hunger strike. Her trial was on August 5, 2019 and was led by judge Moghiseh who set a bail of two billion Tomans (approx. 180 thousand dollars)  for her temporary release, but she could not afford it and was returned to prison. On August …

HRANA – On October 14, 2019, the Branch 36 of Tehran’s appeals court upheld Alieh Motalebzadeh’s sentence of three years imprisonment. In 2016, Alieh Motalebzadeh, women’s rights activist, was sentenced to three years in prison by a  preliminary court. According to the Article 134 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, the charge with the highest penalty will be considered; this means …

Radiozamaneh – On September 11, an investigative report on Open Democracy by Sina Zekavat raised serious concerns in the Iranian community. The article claimed that the Iranian state’s intelligence apparatus might be using Wikipedia pages to exert their influence and censor content. Several questions were brought up about the cooperation between Persian Wikipedia editors who are volunteers and Iranian officials. The Wikimedia …

Al-Monitor – The arrest of an operator of a popular Telegram channel on Oct. 14 shocked many Iranian dissidents abroad. Rohollah Zam, the administrator of Amad News, was residing in France as a political refugee when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization announced his arrest and shortly thereafter aired a video confession. Many dissidents and observers abroad wondered how someone could be apprehended by the …

By Muhammad Sahimi (source: LobeLog) Ethnicities in Iran On September 25, during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)-a pro-Israel, anti-Iran lobby group-held a “summit” in New York that was attended by, among others, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, and Sigal Mandelker, the outgoing Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial …

Radiofarda – More than 200 students at the University of Science and Technology in Tehran have been taken to the hospital for food poisoning at the university’s canteen since Tuesday October 15, Iranian media reported. The students have staged a sit-in in front of the University in protest to the situation, the reports said. A student union official told the …

Radiofarda – The wife of an anti-regime activist captured by Iranian agents accused the Islamic Republic of kidnapping her husband after he arrived in Baghdad from Paris on October 12. Mahsa Razani told IranWire that her husband, Rouhollah Zam first flew to Jordan on October 11 and on October 12 took a flight to Baghdad. Next, she heard from him …

RFL/RE – France has confirmed that a second French academic is being detained in Iran, condemning what it described as “an unacceptable situation.” Franco-Iranian academic Adelkhah Fariba, 2012 Roland Marchal was arrested in June, at the same time as Fariba Adelkhah, a dual French and Iranian citizen, France’s Foreign Ministry said on October 16. Both are senior researchers from Paris’s …